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Best MLP: EPD

Worst MLP: OXF

Best Energy Stock: BHI

Worst Energy Stock: BTU

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Elliott Gue knows energy. Since earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of London, Elliott has dedicated himself to learning the ins and outs of this dynamic sector, scouring trade magazines, attending industry conferences, touring facilities and meeting with management teams.

Elliott Gue’s knowledge of the energy sector and prescient investment calls prompted the official program of the 2008 G-8 Summit in Tokyo to call him “the world’s leading energy strategist.”

He has also appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg TV and has been quoted in a number of major publications, including Barron’s, Forbes and the Washington Post. Elliott Gue’s expertise and track record of success have also made him a sought-after speaker at MoneyShows and events hosted by the Association of Individual Investors.

Prior to founding the Capitalist Times, Elliott Gue shared his expertise and stock-picking abilities with individual investors in two highly regarded research publications, MLP Profits and The Energy Strategist, as well as long-running financial advisory Personal Finance.

In October 2012, Elliott Gue launched the Energy & Income Advisor, a semimonthly online newsletter that’s dedicated to uncovering the most profitable opportunities in the energy sector, from growth stocks to high-yielding utilities, royalty trusts and master limited partnerships.

The masthead may have changed, but subscribers can expect Elliott Gue to deliver the same high-quality analysis and rational assessment of investment opportunities in the energy patch.

Articles

Elliott Gue and Roger Conrad will host the Energy & Income Advisor’s next Live Chat on July 27, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. ET. This is your opportunity to ask questions about the latest developments in the economy and energy patch.

At the end of 2016, Wall Street analysts’ median forecast called for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to average $56 per barrel in the third quarter of 2017 and for Brent to approach $60 per barrel by early 2018.

Whereas most investors cheered OPEC, Russia and a handful of other oil-producing countries’ “historic” agreement to cut output, we took a less sanguine outlook in an Alert issued on Dec. 12, 2016:

OPEC would lose credibility next year as the regulator of the global oil market. Meanwhile, WTI will range between $40 and $60 per barrel for at least the next two to three years. In the near term, we continue to expect WTI to tumble to less than $40 per barrel, once these realities become apparent.

In subsequent writings, we called for oil prices to spend much of the next two years between $45 and $55 per barrel, with spikes outside that range ultimately proving to be relatively short-lived.

This macro view has played out thus far, with sentiment on the efficacy of OPEC’s production cut beginning to sour in March, reflecting concerns about the rapid growth in US oil output in the first half of 2017. Against this backdrop, WTI tumbled to about $42 per barrel in June, before enjoying a modest oversold bounce.

With second-quarter earnings season set to begin in earnest later this month, we update take advantage of the pause before the deluge to review and update our outlooks for commodity prices and energy stocks.

Stepped-up drilling activity and declining break-even costs, coupled with weather-adjusted inventory trends, suggest that natural-gas prices will struggle to remain above $3 per million British thermal units for a prolonged period.

After OPEC and other oil-producing countries announced an “historic” production cut in fall 2016, our out-of-consensus outlook called for the recovery in US oil output to surprise to the upside and drag prices lower. This forecast has played out thus far and has become the consensus view. We lean against the crowd once more and explain why oil prices could recover to $50 per barrel or more later this year.

Elliott Gue and Roger Conrad will host the Energy & Income Advisor’s next Live Chat on June 29, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. ET. This is your opportunity to ask questions about the latest developments in the economy and energy patch.

After OPEC and other major oil-producing countries agreed to curb production in fall 2016, specialist and generalist portfolio managers alike bet heavily on West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rallying to at least $60 per barrel this year.

This shot of confidence prompted investors to move down the quality chain in the search for value and alpha, with marginal equities rallying hard and high-yield energy bonds acting as though the 2014 collapse in oil prices was an aberration, never to be repeated.

However, in 2017, the story has shifted to how the surge in US oil output and stepped-up drilling and completion activity in prolific shale plays—abetted by upstream operators’ aggressive hedging when WTI fetched more than $50 per barrel—have threatened to overwhelm the extended OPEC and non-OPEC supply cuts.

Two weeks of disappointing data on US oil and refined-product inventories have reinforced the market’s negative sentiment toward WTI and energy stocks, while the International Energy Agency’s most recent forecast called for growth in non-OPEC output—led by the US—to offset projected growth in global demand next year.

A string of bullish inventory reports from the Energy Information Administration with larger-than-expected drawdowns in crude and refined-product inventories—a distinct possibility during the summer driving season, a period of strong demand—could catalyze a near-term pop in energy stocks and oil prices.

But ultimately the market will need to come to grips with a US onshore rig count that has increased by 425 drilling units since May 2016 and the Energy Information Administration’s (likely conservative) projections that domestic oil output will increase by an average of 340,000 barrels per day this year and 500,000 barrels per day in 2018.

At this point in the recovery, the US onshore rig count sits at levels (about 900) that Halliburton’s (NYSE: HAL) former CEO, Jeff Miller, last year asserted would have the equivalent productivity of about 2,000 drilling units at the previous cycle’s peak.

Barring further supply cuts from OPEC or security-related disruptions, oil prices could adjust to levels—potentially in the $30s per barrels—that would prompt the US shale complex to rein in drilling and completion activity.

A decline in the US onshore rig count would be the first sign of a US response, while a moderation in the pace at which the industry works off the inventory of drilled wells awaiting completion would also help.

Despite the near-term uncertainty and volatility in the energy sector, we can draw several firm conclusions from developments during the previous down-cycle and the recent up-cycle that will inform our investment strategy in the near term and long term.

After a prolonged lull ushered in by the collapse in oil prices and reduced drilling and completion activity in the US, the flow of initial public offerings (IPO) in the energy sector has increased in recent months, with private-equity outfits seeking to monetize investments in the upstream and oil-field-service segments.

In particular, this year has ushered in a bumper crop of IPOs focused on pressure pumping—the horsepower that forces the fracturing fluid into the reservoir rock—and related downhole services. The timing of these deals coincides with expectations for increasing demand, as exploration and production companies ramp up their completion activity in prolific US shale plays.

However, not every prospective debutant made it to the market on time, with a difficult tape prompting Liberty Oilfield Services (NYSE: BDFC) to postpone its IPO. Investors should tread carefully with these highly cyclical names that specialize in highly commoditized products and service lines; near-term volumetric upside from stepped-up completion activity aside, history suggests that any pricing traction will prove short-lived.

Within the upstream space, the trend toward IPOs involving recycled acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale and revivified Haynesville Shale demonstrates how one company’s noncore assets can become a new holder’s crown jewel, with the appropriate attention and a reset cost basis.

These transactions underscore the scope of the resource base in the US and why the competition for market share will only intensify—an environment that favors players with the strongest balance sheets, highest-quality acreage and lowest cost basis.

Within the midstream segment, the recent crop of IPOs has come primarily from upstream operators seeking to monetize assets. Potential upside for these master limited partnerships usually hinges on a combination of drop-down transactions and increasing throughput volumes, with the market preferring names weighted toward organic growth.

Here, investor must remain laser-focused on the sponsor’s motivations, balance sheet and growth prospects in an environment where energy prices remain lower for longer.

Exploration and production companies with exposure to Colorado’s Niobrara Shale have sold off hard today after news broke that one of Anadarko Petroleum Corp’s legacy vertical wells may have caused a tragic home explosion.

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